Travel provides the perfect opportunity to check out new places and cultures. It expands your mind, and the memories you create will stay with you the rest of your life. The challenge is finding the time to travel, especially if you lead a busy life or don’t have much disposable income to put towards trips. But with the right strategy, those excuses will be a thing of the past. Here are five great ways to start traveling more often.

Set up Travel Alerts

If you’re open regarding where you travel, then you should definitely set up alerts from a few travel websites so that you’re instantly notified of any deals. Airlines and hotels often release huge discounts out of nowhere when they’re looking to make a few more sales, and this is one of those situations where if you snooze, you lose. You can also set up alerts for specific routes and areas if you have a trip idea in mind already.

Become a Travel Agent

There’s only one better way to stay up to date on the latest travel deals than setting up alerts, and that’s by becoming a travel agent. By looking for the best travel packages for other people, you’ll hone your ability to find deals. You’ll also know about all the top bargains in the travel industry as soon as they happen. To top it all off, you’ll get paid to book travel for people. Some companies help individuals start their own travel franchises, and could be worth looking into.

Get a Travel Rewards Credit Card

If you seriously want to travel often, then you should have at least one travel rewards credit card. Every time you use your card, you’ll earn either reward points or frequent flyer miles, and you can use either of those to book your travel. For the best results, you should sign up for new cards periodically to take advantage of the generous signup bonus offers that card issuers frequently have going on, and also make sure to put as many of your usual purchases as you can on your credit card. This allows you to maximize how much you earn in travel rewards.

Check out Shorter Trip Options

It’s nice to take a long vacation, but not every trip needs to involve taking a week off or more. You can also scratch the travel itch by taking the occasional mini-vacation that only lasts a few days or even a single weekend. A road trip is an excellent option here. Pack your car and drive a few hours to a town you haven’t visited before. You can also catch a quick flight somewhere new after you get off work on Friday and come back Sunday, giving you the opportunity to take a trip without even missing any work.

Organize Trips with Your Family

If you’ve moved away from home, you probably head back to visit your parents every so often. As enjoyable as this is, you and your family could probably have even more fun if you all took a trip together. This allows you to see your loved ones while you check out somewhere new. See if your family would be open to trying something new on the next holiday. You can always offer to handle the travel booking if that helps convince them.

It’s easy to come up with reasons why you can’t travel, and many people spend their entire lives doing this. Instead of spending all that energy on thinking of what’s stopping you, figure out how you can travel more in a way that fits your lifestyle.

About the Author:

Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max.